Orson Welles

The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman, who is best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Professor Charles Kingsfield in the The Paper Chase. After a series of acclaimed stage productions, Welles and his Mercury Theatre were offered their own weekly hour-long radio program over the CBS radio network.

A historic 1937 recording of a radio adaptation written, produced, and performed by Orson Welles, complete with sound effects and music.

In the middle of the 18th century two sets of twins are mis-matched at birth only to be reunited on the eve of the French Revolution. The problem is that the twins are members of both the peasant and aristocratic classes. Their meeting, their mixup and the mistaken identities would ultimately constitute one of the most tumultuous events in modern history.

In late 1936, during the height of the Spanish Civil War, a consortium of American artists and intellectuals - including Ernest Hemingway, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Archibald MacLeish - banded together to produce a motion picture to support the democratically-elected Spanish Republic government. After raising three thousand dollars, the group (now calling themselves Contemporary Historians, Inc.) sent Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens to...

Looks at the remarkable genius of Orson Welles on the eve of his centenary - the enigma of his career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker. Orson Welles's life was magical: a musical prodigy at age ten, a director of Shakespeare at fourteen, a painter at sixteen, a star of stage and radio at twenty, romances with some of the most beautiful women in the world, including...

An all-powerful press magnate, Kane, dies in his fabulous castle Xanadu, his last word being "Rosebud", which leads a reporter to seek the meaning behind the word and find the meaning of Kane. Prominant publisher, William Randolph Hearst, saw the film as a thinly disguised version of his career and attempted to suppress it.

Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In this free-form documentary, the legendary filmmaker gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies.

An abridged version of the play, this production condensed the play by eliminating the characters of Edgar and Edmund. King Lear of Britain has decided to divide his kingdom into three parts, and to hand over the responsibilities of ruling to his three daughters. The two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, flatter their father insincerely, and are rewarded. Cordelia, the youngest, sincerely loves her father, but she cannot match her sisters' skill...

Jane comes to Thornfield Hall as a governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. Denied love all her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr. Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram and her party to stay at his estates. Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances for happiness....

The story of the life of Christ, describing certain events that took place between Romans and Jews and setting the political background for the life of Christ, and the personalities and ideas of the New Testament.